– Sen. Stella Oduah said that her sack rumors were “mere interpretations” of the Supreme Court’s rulings. – A solicitor to the nine lawmakers that were allegedly sacked have written to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). – The Supreme Court did not order the withdrawal of the Certificates of Return issued by the Commission

The senator representing Anambra North,
Stella Oduah (PDP) on Friday, January 29 said
that her sack rumors were “mere
interpretations” of the Supreme Court’s
rulings.
In a statement by Cynthia Ferdinand, Press
Secretary to the Senator, Oduah therefore
stressed that she and all the other lawmakers
from Anambra state have not been sacked by
the Supreme Court contrary to media
reports.
The statement read: “Adverse to the rumours
that the Lawmaker Representing the good
people of Anambra North Senator Stella
Oduah of the Peoples Democratic Party has
been sacked by the Supreme Court .
“It is however pertinent to note that this is a
mere misinterpretation of the Supreme Court
rulings and should be disregarded in all
entirety.
“The Supreme Court did not order the
withdrawal of the Certificates of Return
issued by the Commission.It did not hold
that the faction of the PDP had the right to
sponsor candidates for the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP).
“It did not equally authorize the Commission
to substitute our clients with the individuals
whose names were on the list improperly
allowed by the Commission. Series of
judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria
states that that it is only the National
Executive of the party that has the vires to
sponsor candidates,” she said.
However, the solicitor to the nine lawmakers
that were allegedly sacked have written to
the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) not to be misled by the
court ruling.
It read in parts: “ This correspondence is
aimed at setting the record straight so that
your good self will not again be misled by
your legal department into unjustifiably
occasioning an unnecessary confusion in the
process.
“May I draw your attention to the most
pertinent segment of the Judgment for the
purpose of the status of the legislators
sponsored by the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) at pages 46, 47 and 48 of the
Judgment where their lordships of the
Supreme Court held as follows:-
“The Court below, however, veered from the
course set by the trial court and took the
matter to another level which clearly failed to
take into consideration the main issue before
the trial court.
“It is established beyond peradventure that it
is the National Executive Committee of the
appellant which has the power to conduct a
valid primary for the nomination or selection
of candidates for a general election.
“Accordingly, I hold that there was no feature
in the case submitted by the Appellants that
warranted the court below to apply the cases
of OKADIGBO v. EMEKA & Ors (Supra) and
EMENIKE v. PDP (supra).
“The two authorities decided on which organ
of a Political Party has power to conduct
primaries. This is not the issue in this case.
Thus, this issue is yet again resolved in
favour of the Appellants.” It read.
Naij.com recalls that in December 2014, the
Federal High Court had ruled that the Ejike
Oguebego-led executive was the only
constitutionally recognized leadership of the
party in Anambra state that could conduct
the PDP primaries.
Despite that ruling, the parallel state
executive of the PDP led by Chief Chukwudi
Okasa went ahead to conduct parallel
primaries.
However, by this judgment, the apex court
reaffirmed the verdict of the Federal High
Court declaring that the Oguebego-led
executive had the sole right to conduct the
primaries in that state.